Global Warming Solutions News

Groups Outline Solutions at Inaugural Hearing of Senate Climate Committee

Boston – Environmental organizations from the Massachusetts Climate Coalition today joined in calling for strong state action on global warming at the inaugural hearing of the state Senate's Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change. The committee is chaired by Senator Marc Pacheco.

The coalition applauded the committee for its leadership and urged its members to act quickly in releasing strong recommendations to the Senate.

"There are solutions at our fingertips – like energy efficiency and renewable fuels – that would cut global warming pollution nearly twenty percent by 2020, and several bills already filed this session would put them to use," said Frank Gorke of Environment Massachusetts. "The first step is to cap global warming pollution at levels that will enable us to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. That will ensure we use the tools that are in the toolbox now, and it will also send the right signals to inventors and investors that we have to start now to create the tools that will get the deep long-term pollution reductions we need."

At the hearing, environmental organizations highlighted the best strategies for making significant reductions in global warming pollution, with an eye towards the long-term goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050. In 2001, the U.S. Governors and Canadian Premiers of the region committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 75-85% over time.

Environment Massachusetts released a chart, based on federal energy use data, projecting significant growth in global warming emissions between now and 2050 – the exact opposite of the pollution reductions scientists are saying will be necessary to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. The chart also projects that emissions reductions from existing climate policies – the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and the California Clean Cars Standards, now being challenged in court by automakers – will be insufficient.

"We need to get RGGI right, and we need to defeat the lawsuit brought by the automakers," said Gorke. "But that's not nearly enough. Both policies effectively suspend themselves in about a decade, so we will never see the economy-wide pollution reductions we need. To solve global warming, we need to pass a comprehensive global warming policy, like in Carbon Cap legislation filed this session by both Senator Pacheco and Senator O'Leary."

Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey is chairing a similar committee in the U.S. House, and is looking at parallel carbon cap legislation filed by Congressman Henry Waxman of California.

Notes on the Chart:

This chart shows a "business as usual" (BAU) emissions trend in the black line. Historic emissions (1990 – 2004) are calculated from US. EIA fuel use data. The BAU projections into the future are calculated from U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projections of regional energy use from 2004 – 2030, adjusted proportionally for Massachusetts. The 2030 to 2050 estimates are based on extrapolating the emissions increase trend of 2020 – 2030 in the EIA projections. http://www.eia.doe.gov/

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) emissions line is based on the 2009 – 2018 state budget numbers in the RGGI Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). It is assumed that the policy is unchanged after 2018 – in other words, that emissions from the electricity sector remain capped at the 2018 level. The red trend line rises in the out years because of rising emissions from other sectors. www.rggi.org

The "Tailpipe Limits" are based on analysis of the emissions reductions projected from adoption of the California limits on motor vehicle global warming emissions, which are currently being challenged in the courts by automakers. It is assumed that the policy is unchanged after 2016, which is the year by which automakers will be required to reduce global warming pollution from vehicles by approximately 30% from 2002 levels. http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/factsheets/cc_newfs.pdf

 Additional Contacts

Brian Thurber, Clean Water Action, 617-338-8131 ext 209

Sue Reid, Conservation Law Foundation, 617-416-2187

John Rogers, Union of Concerned Scientists, 617-301-8055

Sam Krasnow, Environment Northeast, 401-439-0041